Once again, I am doing Kris Carr’s 21-Day Adventure Cleanse and I’m finding that the green juice really gets my creative juices flowing! I particularly love the challenge of making yummy food vegan AND gluten-free. This recipe meets those two criteria and many of the others on the cleanse — it’s made with raw veggies and herbs, it’s balanced with a protein, and it’s even low-glycemic!

The stand-in for pasta in this recipe is a large-grated summer squash. Grating the squash with a large-whole grater gives the squash the size and texture needed to look and feel like real pasta. And the light, zingy dressing gives it the traditional pasta-salad taste.

Alright, I know what kale chips sound like. And these are baked kale chips, no less. But you’ve got to believe me when I say, they’re awesomely delicious! And much easier to make than baked potato chips or even sweet potato chips. Better yet, served with a healthy dipping sauce, they are indeed kid-friendly.

My favorite Italian restaurant is Garozzo’s in Kansas City, Missouri. The original location is in Kansas City’s Little Italy near the river market. My dear friend, Frank Siraguso, who grew up in Little Italy during its golden age, turned me onto Garozzo’s many years ago. I was immediately smitten.

The first thing I remember tasting was a dish called Sicilian Garlic Dip that Frank affectionately called Italian Butter. Served with warm Italian bread, the dip was one of the most decadent and addictive dishes I’ve ever tasted. Like the infamous Turkish Delight in Chronicles of Narnia, I couldn’t get enough! The more I ate, the more I wanted.

At home, I tried to mimic the recipe. It’s impossible. But once I moved here to Iowa and far away from Garozzo’s, I became determined to come as close as I could.

What I came up with is a garlicky herbed dip that can’t beat Garozzo’s, but holds its own here at the Andrews’ dinner table.

I taste tested this salad with Brando, our office intern, a.k.a. The Organic Boy, this week and he asked me what a superfood is. Superfoods are a special category of foods found in nature. By definition they are calorie sparse and nutrient dense. You can find a variety of lists of superfoods online.

First and foremost, this particular salad is designed to be crunchy. I wanted a super-hearty salad with lots of flavor and texture that could serve as a meal in itself. It features kale, red cabbage, carrots, apples, walnuts, pistachios, dried goji berries and craisins. The dressing is definitely Asian-inspired and made with low-fat Vegenaise.

NOTE: if you want to up the health quotient a little come Turkey Day, this would make a great side dish!

Did The Organic Boy like it? Yes. However, he suggests making it with almonds. You can dress up your super salad with just about any nut and dried fruit combo, so suit yourself.

In a medium-pot, saute kale and sesame seeds in 2 tsp. sesame oil on medium heat until slightly wilted, about two minutes. Set pot aside to cool.

While the kale cools, throw all of the dressing ingredients into a food processor and pulse until smooth, around one minute. If you like your salad dressings thicker, just omit the water in the recipe.

In a large serving bowl, combine all of the other salad ingredients, plus the cooled kale, and stir until well-mixed. Chill for one to two hours before serving.

Although, I recently came out as a bona fide Chegan, there’s no need to go that route with this “cheesy” soup. Adapted from the Moosewood Low-fat Favorites cookbook, this soup was a hit with my family and even Chelsea at Roots Market!

What makes this soup so cheesy, I think, is the fresh lemon. It certainly wasn’t the intention of the recipe writers to make the soup cheesy, but in my version of the recipe, that’s how it turns out. The other reason this works so well is the fact that you puree the soup — this gives it the creamy “cheesy” smoothness without the cheese.

Gus said it best: This soup is peanut sauce meets squash. If you like either, I think you’ll like this. If you like both, you’ll love it.

I called this “Secret Agent Soup” because I read somewhere that kids are more apt to eat something with a fun, creative, kid-like name. I had to come up with this one on the fly because Gus asked what it was and I certainly didn’t want to tell him “Nutty Roasted Butternut Squash Soup.” Way too boring. Way too healthy.

So, I told him it was Secret Agent Soup and he had to find out what was in it himself. This worked out splendidly because it required tasting a few bites to discern all of the different flavors. Of course, he nailed peanut sauce and squash immediately. (Technically, it’s not peanut sauce, but with the other spices it tastes a heck of a lot like it.)

This recipe is modified from a recipe for Nutty Sweet Potato Soup in this month’s Vegetarian Times.

I worked as a waitress throughout high school and college in a variety of different restaurants. Nearly all of them served a soup called California Medley. It was a creamy soup (sometimes cheesy, sometimes not) with cauliflower, broccoli and carrots. I’m sure it came from Martin Brothers or some other food service place, so it was OK. I wasn’t in love with it, but I always liked the idea of it.

Flash forward to the present, where I have turned into a soup-making machine and even have a blog with the word “soup” in it. And yet, I’ve never tried to remake California Medley and make it awesome. Until now.

I’m calling my version of this soup California Motley because it’s much more of a mishmash than your regular old medley. It has yummy fresh herbs and fresh farmer’s market veggies (as opposed to veggies that came from god-knows-where, guar gum and who knows what else). And it rhymes with Motley Crew. Who isn’t at least intrigued by that?

Oh, and did I mention that kids LOVE it? Mine gobbled it up and then stood by with spoons trying to steal more when I put away the leftovers. The other great thing about this soup is that it smells simply amazing while it cooks.

For those of you who want to run out to your nearest farmer’s market so you can get your fresh veggies and herbs, I have listed those that are in season and available in Iowa below.

When I was a kid, one of my absolute favorite dinners was this: Bohemian-style dumplings drenched in brown butter, sausage patties, sauer kraut and hominy fried in bacon grease! These menu items were all lovingly made by my German-Bohemian-Irish grandma, Bette, whom I adored. Whenever I eat hominy, I think of her. And my mom still makes those awesomely buttery dumplings. I eat hominy now sans bacon, of course. This recipe is a nutritious alternative to the hominy-in-bacon-grease dish, but still has that same old down-homey-ness.

I think I’ve stumbled upon the latest food trend just now. First there was bacon. Now, it’s food made out of babies for babies. I was so moved by this recipe by the famous model/mother/foodie/boho blogger of Weelicious and her decision to overcome her “fear” of eating lamb so she could feed it to her two young children that I just had to post it. She really took one for the team, let me tell you, and made up this delicious recipe, “My kids must not have inherited my distaste for lamb because my two little carnivores proceeded to voraciously dip the chops in the yogurt mint sauce and pick the bones clean of any trace of meat. They were in heaven to say the least. I could swear the look on both of their faces meant, ‘why have you never given us this before?!’”

Wow! This is incredibly impressive. Here I thought I was doing well getting my kids to eat their hummus with a spoon and gobble up asparagus soup like little fiends, but no. When you can get your babies to eat other babies, you have gone to a whole nother level.

So, why not give this a try? If you cant find a baby lamb in your backyard or at your local farm, why not go for a kitten, or better yet, a nice baby rabbit. I’m sure there’s lots of those around this time of year, what with Easter and what not. Go crazy!